#43

welcome to the latest issue of hedgerow, featuring The White Spaces Series by august’s resident artist Debbie Strange, along with the work of five different poets. grateful to readers & contributors alike!

 

with love & kindness.

 

 

 

blooming
on both sides of the fence:
forget-me-nots

.

summer reading …
my old dog on his back
yawns at the clouds

.

the sand
slips through my clasped fingers …
autumn dusk

Chen-ou Liu is currently the editor and translator of NeverEnding Story, http://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.ca/, and the author of five books, including Following the Moon to the Maple Land (First Prize, 2011 Haiku Pix Chapbook Contest) and A Life in Transition and Translation (Honorable Mention, 2014 Turtle Light Press Biennial Haiku Chapbook Competition)

 

 

 

Honourable Mention, Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, Tokutomi Haiku Contest, 2014

 

 

 

visible stars . . .
all that I know
I don’t know

.

so much passion beneath a nickel-sized moon

Julie Warther (@JulieWarther) lives in Dover, Ohio and serves as Midwest Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America. (www.hsa-haiku.org). Her haiku chapbook “What Was Here” is available through Folded Word Press.  
http://foldedword.bigcartel.com/product/what-was-here

 

 

 

poem previously published in Red Lights, Volume 11, Number 2, June 2015

 

 

 

holocaust of the heart

he was
crippled emotionally
not physically—
the slow descent
into despair

after he jilted me
my outer layers
of protection
peeling off like veneers
in heavy rain

separated—
i lie in a cold
death bed
thick with parched
tears

nothing would
sway his mind
not my love
not my thirst
not my ardent prayers

the bone silence
of an empty tea cup—
deep into
the night
my suicidal breath

holocaust
of the heart
unrepairable
pulverized
into red-rust dust

dark notes
of a howling pound
my sheltered mask
i sink deeper & deeper
into an ebony funk

Pamela A. Babusci is an internationally award-winning haiku/tanka & haiga artist. She lives in Rochester, NY, USA.

first published in Adanna Literary Journal Issue 5 2015
http://adannajournal.blogspot.co.uk/

 

 

 

poem previously published in Ribbons, Volume 10, Number 2, Spring/Summer 2014

 

 

 

my shadow
further cracks …
late monsoon

(referring to ‘drought’)

Archana Kapoor Nagpal is an internationally published author of four books and three anthologies. Presently, she resides in Bangalore, India. You can visit her Amazon Author Profile to know more about her books and literary contributions.

 

 

 


poem published in Gems, An Anthology of Haiku, Senryu and Sedoka, 2014

 

 

 

winter sunset
the old Bing Crosby songs
Dad used to sing

Anna Cates resides in Wilmington, Ohio with her two cats, Freddie and Christine, writes.  She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, and several other advanced degrees related to English studies, and teaches English online for several universities.  She is a regular contributor to short form poetry publications, and her first full length collection of haiku and other poems, “The Meaning of Life,” from Cyberwit.net, is now available on Amazon.

 

 

 

sketch only, Winner of The Heron’s Nest 2014 Illustration Contest (front cover)
haiga published in Cattails, September 2014

 

 

 

The White Spaces Series by Debbie Strange —

 

I love the sense of mystery surrounding white spaces in art. These iPad sketches are not meant to be realistic portrayals, but rather, a means for the viewer to fill in the blanks…

 

read more about the artist behind the art here —https://hedgerowpoems.wordpress.com/poet-artist-in-conversation/

 

 

 

Advertisement

#36

welcome to the latest issue of hedgerow! thrilled to announce that the ‘art & poetry book reviews’ page (https://hedgerowpoems.wordpress.com/poetry-art-book-reviews/) is up. the first instalment features two books & more to come! also happy to announce that the winner of the book draw is Clifford Blizard who will receive a signed copy of a hundred small poems by caroline skanne shortly! a big thanks to those of you who registered your interest! please find a link below where the book can be purchased. grateful to everyone, for simply turning up & happy friday to you!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/hundred-small-poems-caroline-skanne/dp/1506022944

with love & kindness,

Caroline Skanne

founder / editor

 

 

 

first summer
fawn belly deep
in brook water

.

as we wave goodbye
a heron overhead
disappears into the distance

Joyce Joslin Lorenson lives in Rhode Island, U.S.A., grew up on a dairy farm and records the daily happenings in nature around her rural home.

 

 

 

unnamed

Jane Williams is an Australian poet based in Tasmania. Her most recent book is Days Like These – New and Selected Poems. http://www.janewilliams.wordpress.com

 

 

 

twilight mist
a female pheasant
sprints passed a gateway

.

a heron’s call
on this moonlit night
the river I long for

Thomas Powell is a potter who lives in County Down, Northern Ireland. Journals in which his haiku have appeared include A Hundred Gourds, Blithe Spirit, Chrysanthemum, Presence, Shamrock Haiku and The Heron’s Nest. He is a winner in The Snapshot Press eChapbook Awards and The Snapshot Press Book Awards. Thomas is also a contributor to A New Resonance 9, published by Red Moon Press.

 

 

 

How It Feels to See Her
For Melissa M. Schaefer

Her essence wraps itself
around my broken rib cage,
ties itself around my heart,
swings down vertebrae.

She’s such a soft giggle
to my organs, a tease
for my soul. She feels
like sister, like home.

Raquel Reyes-Lopez lives in Montebello, California USA. She is a Gemini madly in love with life and a moon child. If you squint hard enough you can find her sleeping in the moon’s craters. Follow her at contactraquel.wordpress.com

 

 

 

unnamed-1

Chase Gagnon is a student from Detroit, who loves staying up all night drinking coffee and writing poetry. His poems have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies over the past two years.

 

 

 

roadside rest
daisies among
the cat tails

.

yoga class
unexpected twist—
pretzel pose

Nancy Brady lives in Huron, Ohio on the shores of Lake Erie from which she takes inspiration. She is the author of two books of haiku: Ohayo Haiku andThree Breaths.

 

 

 

watershadows
a secret
under a stone

.

the floating cow
  sniffs at a floating mushroom
  as the clouds float by

.

jellyfish swimming
through a pale blue sky
the sound of rustling paper*

*a found haiku in the “Fu-go” episode of the Radiolab podcast

Mike Andrelczyk is currently living in Strasburg, PA. Also lived in Los Angeles, Ca. and Lewes, De. He likes writing haiku about the ocean, potatoes, moons, plants – mostly little things except the ocean which is huge, and the moon which looks little but isn’t. Follow on Twitter @MikeAndrelczyk.

 

 

 

shelter in the hut—
a swinging cobweb
touches my wet hand

.

bass notes
in the rocky river
birdsong

Myron Lysenko has published six books of poetry, the latest devoted to haiku. He lives in Victoria, Australia and runs a monthly poetry venue in Woodend.

 

 

 

Estuary

The water and the sky are like eternity —
A roll of wrist in water
And in light,
Casting a net of birds in flight
I know to be
The motion of forever.

I catch with all my frailty
At the gesture —

Catch at the curvature
Of strength in its acclivity of wings
Through tremulous resurgences and blurred diminishings —

Until an hour when, through the length of light,
You cast a net of birds in flight
And gather me.

Isabel Chenot lives in the US. She has been previously published in Anima poetry journal and on the Atavic poetry website.

 

 

 

counting the fireflies
circling our bed
summer romance

.

waterfalls
of summer rain
mother’s old red boots

Joy Reed MacVane lives on the New Hampshire seacoast and hides out in the summer on an island off the Maine coast.

 

 

 

Three cabbage whites, two dragonflies,
One thrush
Distinguishing silences.

Moorchicks sprint along the
Lily pads
Playing at flight with stumpy wings.

A baby toad, my thumbnail size,
His thumb
A perfect pinpoint miracle.

With the unhurried grace of a
Gardener,
Hope holds my elbow, smiles.

I dig and hear, near me, her
Silent breath –
She who first buried spring bulbs.

Rosie Johnston’s three poetry pamphlets have been published by Lapwing Publications in Belfast, Northern Ireland where Rosie was born. She lives in London where she also writes fiction and journalism and is poet in residence for the Cambridgeshire Wildlife Trust.

 

 

 

After midnight
only the owls
hear Jupiter’s bawdy joke
and Venus’ twinkly laugh

After midnight
the lonely ghost in the hall
beckons: “just one dance”

After midnight
is quieter and paler
than when it was young

Stacey Crawford Murphy savors life in Ithaca, NY.